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The People’s Journal, “A Penny Saturday paper devoted to the interests of the Working Classes”, was one of the most successful and culturally influential publications in Victorian Scotland. 

From the beginning, the Journal set out to represent ordinary men and women, and it provided a platform for their opinions and experiences, publishing readers’ letters, stories, and especially their poetry. Collected here are more than one hundred examples of these poems – comical, sentimental, political and polemical – on a dizzy variety of subjects, from domestic pleasures and local events to national questions and foreign affairs.

These works, written by tradesmen and women, factory workers, servants, and others, are both deeply fascinating and highly entertaining. Their often neglected voices are part of a literary heritage that deserves recovery: and their concerns and interests often chime, more than we might expect, with issues still very much current in the modern day.

Kirstie Blair is Professor of English at the University of Strathclyde. She has published widely on Victorian literature and culture, particularly poetry and poetics, Scottish Victorian popular culture and literature, working-class writing, literature and religion, and literature and medicine. 

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 
Introduction

Poetry from the People’s Journal 

1. The Muir, ‘Complaint and Petition of the Muir of Alyth’. 23 January 1858 
2. Trebor, ‘Consolation to the Muir of Alyth’. 30 January 1858 
3. The Muir, ‘Eik to Petition of the Muir of Alyth’. 27 February 1858. 
4. Apollo, ‘A Young Rhymester’s Address to the Editor’. 1 May 1858 
5. A Son of St Tammas, ‘I sigh not’. 26 June 1858. 
6. Apollo, ‘The Dundee Maiden’. 3 July 1858. 
7. David M. Eli, ‘Dialogue between the Auld Brig and the Burn’. 10 July 1858. 
8. J. M., ‘Think For Yourselves’. 5 March 1859. 
9. Factorius, ‘Shepherd’s Song’. 10 September 1859 
10. Pro Libertate, ‘Subscription to Garibaldi’. 23 June 1860 
11. Anon, ‘Garibaldi’s Soliloquy’. 17 November 1860 
12. Anon, ‘Poem on the Forfar Volunteers’. 3 August 1861 
13. Hawthorn, ‘Epistle to Tammas Bodkin’. 31 August 1861 
14. Poute, ‘Untitled [Letter to editor]’. 5 October 1861 
15. Poute, ‘Odd to a Krokis’. 22 March 1862 
16. G. D., ‘The Lass o’ Broughty Ferry’. 5 April 1862 
17. E. J., A Factory Girl, ‘To My Husband’. 9 August 1862 
18. A. F. M., ‘On Top of the Law’. 4 October 1862 
19. J. E. Watt, ‘Nan Tamson’s Wean’. 22 November 1862 
20. D. Tasker, ‘The Bairnies at Hame’. 6 June 1863 
21. Iain Ban, ‘The Author of “Bonny Strathtay’s” Apology to the People’s Journal’. 1 August 1863 
22. James Watson, ‘Home Recollections’. 29 August 1863 
23. Anon, ‘Rouse, brothers, Rouse’. 5 September 1863 
24. E. J., The Factory Girl, ‘The Opening of the Baxter Park’. 12 September 1863 
25. Will Harrow, ‘A Voice from Stanley Mills’. 19 December 1863 
26. Poute, ‘Apostroffe to the Rainbow’. 30 January 1864 
27. A Missionary, ‘The Chappin’ Laddie’. 30 January 1864 
28. Anon, ‘The Working Lasses’. 16 July 1864 
29. J. F., ‘A Voice from Parnassus’. 1 October 1864 
30. Poute, ‘Kale-Wurms’. 26 August 1865 
31. Moses Daylite, ‘An Epissel to Poute’. 10 March 1866 
32. J. C., ‘The Scottish Servant Maid’. 17 March 1866 
33. A. L. B., ‘A Scottish Servant Maid’. 19 May 1866 
34. John Taylor, ‘The Navvies’. 17 July 1866 
35. William Donaldson, ‘A Lay of Reform’. 11 August 1866 
36. J. C., ‘Song. (Dedicated to the Scottish Servant Maids)’. 18 August 1866 
37. A. W., ‘Reform’. 13 October 1866 
38. Justitia, ‘The Plague-Stricken Village’. 8 December 1866 
39. Fernogus, ‘Hold Up Your Head’. 9 February 1867 
40. James Gow, ‘Despondency’. 13 July 1867 
41. W. R. Mainds, ‘Lines Addressed to James Gow’. 20 July 1867 
42. David Morrison, ‘The Bard of Caldervale’. 10 August 1867 
43. J. G., ‘Hard Times’. 16 November 1867 
44. J. S. M., ‘Lines on Receiving a People’s Journal’. 30 May 1868 
45. James Winthrope, ‘Woe’. Christmas 1868 
46. John Pettigrew, ‘Sweet’. 27 March 1869 
47. David Johnson, ‘Co-operation’. 3 April 1869 
48. A. A., ‘John Keats’. 17 April 1869 
49. Will Harrow, ‘The Tory Lords’. 17 July 1869 
50. Wolfhill, ‘The Herd Laddie’. 11 September 1869 
51. Harpoon, ‘A Tale of a Whale’. 20 November 1869 
52. J. D., ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade (Apollo’s)’. 27 November 1869 
53. J. B. M., ‘The Tay Bridge’. 23 April 1870 
54. John Pindar, ‘To My Auld Knapsack’. 4 June 1870 
55. Backwoodsman, ‘The Land That Rear’d Us A”. 24 September 1870 
56. M. W. W., ‘My Washing Machine’. 14 January 1871 
57. M., ‘Lines on the Death of the Glenlivet Poet’. 18 February 1871 
58. G. L., ‘The Tailor’s Protest’. 25 March 1871 
59. T. N. D., ‘Murder Most Foul’. 24 June 1871 
60. Poute, ‘Gouldings Manur’. 18 November 1871 
61. Eriphos, ‘Defeatit’. 2 December 1871 
62. Matilda, ‘To the Domestic Servants’. 4 May 1872 
63. The Factory Muse, ‘Athole’s Pies’. 1 June 1872 
64. J. Doubleyou, ‘The Evening Hours, A Homely Rhyme’. 1 June 1872 
65. Anon, ‘Address to J. Doubleyou’. 22 June 1872 
66. Will Harrow, ‘Epistle to Tammas Bodkin’. 13 July 1872 
67. W. M., ‘A Favourite Picture’. 3 August 1872 
68. Eriphos, ‘Oor Mill’. 15 February 1873 
69. W. T. E., ‘Coals’. 22 March 1873 
70. Margaret Wallace, ‘Lily of the Vale’. 30 May 1874 
71. Wandering Willie, ‘Happy Lamoo’. 23 January 1875 
72. John Stargazer, ‘My First Attempt’. 15 May 1875 
73. Elizabeth Campbell, ‘Three Score and Ten’. 15 May 1875 
74. Auld Betty, ‘The Lassies o’ Bonnie Dundee’. 14 August 1875 
75. Mistress Lapstane, ‘Ane Strikeing Ballant’. 28 August 1875 
76. D. Taylor, ‘Jute’. 10 March 1877 
77. C., ‘Rapidly, Rapidly. A Good Templar Song’. 10 March 1877 
78. Lisa M. Smith, ‘Only’. 14 April 1877 
79. J. A. Duthie, ‘Naething New’. 28 July 1877 
80. William McGonagall, ‘An Address to Thee Tay Bridge’. 15 September 1877 
81. W. S. T., ‘Burns’s Lament’. 2 March 1878 
82. Auld C., ‘King Jute’. 7 April 1878 
83. An Old Stager, ‘An Epistle to McGonagall’. 25 May 1878 
84. W. W., ‘The Millennium of Capital’. 20 July 1878 
85. Mrs Duthie, ‘The Poets’ Wail’. 23 November 1878 
86. E. Lindsay, ‘The Sack-Sewers of Dundee’. 1 March 1879 
87. James Y. Geddes, ‘Died on the Street’. 22 March 1879 
88. D. Taylor, ‘Ring Up the Curtain’. 19 April 1879 
89. Per Mare Per Terram, ‘Isandula’. 8 November 1879 
90. Anon, ‘Ketchwayo the Zulu’. 22 November 1879 
91. G. W. Donald, ‘Lines, Suggested by the Melancholy Wreck of the Tay Bridge’. 3 January 1880 
92. J. S. M., ‘In Memoriam’. 10 January 1880 
93. John Rae, ‘An Election Song’. 27 March 1880 
94. Jacob Moon, ‘An M.P. Non Est’. 27 March 1880 
95. Jessie R. McIntyre, ‘The Dogs of War’. 10 April 1880 
96. P. Mitchell, ‘Dakota’. 21 August 1880 
97. Grandfather, ‘Reminiscences of the People’s Journal’. 29 March 1881 
98. Jessie R. McIntyre, ‘A Year Ago’. 21 May 1881 
99. John Rae, ‘Eviction’. 23 July 1881 
100. Annie S. Swan, ‘April Days’. 29 April 1882 
101. Jas. Burns, ‘Advice to Blue Ribboners at the Fair Holidays’. 24 June 1882 
102. J. M. K., ‘Victory’. 23 September 1882 
103. G. Bruce, ‘The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir’. 14 October 1882 
104. E. W., ‘In the Net Factory’. 14 April 1883 

Poetry from the People’s Friend 

105. Maggie, ‘The Trappit Mouse’. 4 August 1869 
106. Dorothea, ‘With You’. 15 March 1871 
107. Surfaceman, ‘Jenny wi’ the Airn Teeth’. 26 November 1873 
108. T. N. D., ‘The Night Signalman’. 5 May 1875 
109. J. W. R., ‘I’ll Hae My Freen’. 23 June 1875. 
110. Nisbet Noble, ‘The Storming of Perth’. 19 January 1876 
111. James Nicholson, ‘Jenny wi’ the Lang Pock’. 20 September 1876 
112. Alexander G. Murdoch, ‘The Thistle Yet’. 20 December 1876 
113. W. M. W., ‘The Workmen’s Cry to the Masters’. 13 June 1877 
114. W. P. Crawford, ‘Epistle to “Faither Fernie” (Jas. Nicholson)’. 19 January 1881 
115. L. J. Nicolson, ‘A Shetland Lullaby’. 10 August 1881 
116. Nisbet Noble, ‘Epistle to Robert Wanlock’. 4 January 1882 
117. Sailon, ‘A Song of the Clyde’. 10 May 1882 
118. Alexander G. Murdoch, ‘Song of the Clyde Workers’. 3 January 1883 

Bibliography 
Index of poems by subgenre

Cover design: Mark Blackadder.